Estate Sale Finds In 2008!

[zenithfan1]

Another nice save! Congrats!

[drh4683]

This was a local find for me this past Thursday off of craigslist. It was in Des Plaines, IL which is a northwest suburb. Very close by to where I work, so I was able to stop by on my way home.
I called up the guy who was the son of the original owners to ask for a model number and some pictures. The pictures he sent made the set look really kind of bad. The top of the cabinet looked bad in his pics, but it turned out to be alot better when I saw it in person.
This is a 1967 model X4120 that uses the 24NC31Z chassis. This is the very last year zenith offered roundies, and the 24NC31 the last chassis designed for the 21FJP22. Its a lower end console, but Ive been wanting to find one of these late model zenith roundies with this control layout. I always liked the speaker grille with the color emblem in the center.
He goes on to tell me that the TV was not working and that a TV repair man back in the late 70's said the tube was shot and the TV was not worth repair. He tried it out before he listed it to confirm that the CRT was "bad". We got it upstairs in the living room and plugged it in. Sound but no picture. pulled the back off to check it out and I could hear high voltage, the CRT filaments were on. So I suspected a video output problem or a totally dead crt. I flipped the service switch over and got a nice bright horizontal line! I flipped it back and the picture came on bright! Just an intermittent service switch! The verticle is very short though, but it does have a good picure. The CRT was replaced in October of a year yet to be determined as the degaussing ring was covering that part of the label. I dont know what kind of rebuild it is either. It looks like maybe a channel master or so. Pulling off the ring will reveal the rest. They didnt remember when the new tube was put in. After about 1 minute, we smelled smoke. The thermistor was broken away and was arcing! So thats where it stands now until I have a chance to pull it apart and get it back to normal.
The reason they kept it is because their daughter won the TV on Bozo's flying circus back in 1966! It was a horse naming contest and you had to write in to WGN TV with what you would name the horse. The names were judged and the winner got the zenith TV and the horse! Well, their daughter won, with the name "Padapon". The horse went to the zoo where it lived a good life. The original owners son was there to help me with the TV, it was still in their house since day one. I commented that Padapon was an interesting name for a horse. He laughed and said that his sister remembered that name from some story book with a horse she liked. Ha, the judges didn't even know it was a plagerized name! She was only 6 years old when the TV was won as first prize. It was the familys first color TV set.

It was advertized as a best offer deal. Well, after they found out I was a collector and was familar with these, the family just wanted me to have it for free as part of my collection as they really wanted to see it go to a good home. I still gave them $20 for it and everyone was happy.

[newhallone]

Awesome! The more roundies I see the more I love em.

[radiotvnut]

Nice find & a good story! There does not appear to be any cataracts on the CRT, which is very rare; even if the tube was replaced somewhere along the way. Can't wait to see it running...

[sampson159]

i saw that on craigslist.channel master made a really nice rebuilt picture tube. i have had several in the past and they are great! nice save on that great set!

[Carmine]

Doug, that's the same set I want you to re-cap the chassis on for me... When do you think you be able to head out here? How does next weekend sound?

[bgadow]

That's a great story! I really think it's important to document things like that-I write down everything I know about everything in my collection. Maybe nobody will ever care, but who knows? I wonder if there were any newspaper ads for that contest?

Is this the crt that uses the seperate non-bonded faceplate? I know Zenith and others used it on their cheapest models.

[drh4683]

Spent some time on the zenith roundie today. Pulled the chassis, tested the tubes and esr on the filter lytics. Had a few shorted 6Kt8's which is typical as well as weak tuner tubes. The vertical was way to short caused by the 40uF@475 in the vertical circuit. The cap was basically open. One of the filter lytics got replaced too at one time, but the quality of soldering was pretty poor as well as melted wires. That got corrected. Had to install a new thermistor and varistor on the degaussing coil assembly too. Fine tuner nylon gear was cracked down the middle too which is so common on turret tuners. You find that you can adjust the fine tuning in one direction, and not in the other as the gear slips on the serrated shaft.
The chroma circuits were in good shape as was the rest of the set. It was more or less a simple tube change/clean up to bring the set back to life. The CRT is dated October, 1975 and is a General Electric rebuild. It tests 100% on all three guns, so the set must have been taken out of service shortly after the new CRT installation. The guy I got it from claims they stopped using it in the late 70's-early 80's when the tech said the CRT was shot......this was obviously not the case. The service outfit "Certified Television" used only GE tubes in this set.
Seeing the picture on a zenith with a strong tube is unbelievable. The picture quality is crisp and very pleasing to the eye. This is why I like analog! 42 year old TV with a picture that can rival most of todays newer sets. Another quality zenith product.

[radiotvnut]

Glad to see you got it going & that's one fine picture on that set!

[zenithfan1]

Beautiful picture and a great score! Good job! I really like the looks of that set.

[zenithfan1]

I just realized by reading the story on the set that this is the one I called about a week or two ago. The guy told me the same story about the set, he also said he was going to send pictures of it to my email and never did. I figured someone else got it. Oh well, at least it went into good hands. I was a big Bozo fan as a kid and thought it would be cool to have that tv. Could I at least come see it run sometime?? Thanks for saving it Doug.

[zenith2134]

Man oh man, DRH...that picture is nothing short of incredible. Analog is king in my book, too FWIW. Audio and Video. With the right gear, it blows away digital to my senses.

Again, you have a very special collection brewing, man! I always admire it when I see these posts.

[Findm-Keepm]

Doug,

Quite a collection you have now! What are you going to do with it later in life? Here's a tongue-in-cheek possibility:

Saturday, September 14, 2058 -

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Announces Major Acquisition

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has completed an agreement to acquire nearly 700 20th century Television receivers (TVs) from noted Chicago TV collector and restorer Doug H******.
The significant acquisition includes consoles, portables, remotes, advertising items, all with extensive provenance documentation. The acquisition encompasses the major portion of Mr. H******’s massive collection of finely restored TVs dating to the 1950s. Noted items from the collection include over 350 TVs from Zenith, a major Chicago manufacturer of televisions..
"We are extremely pleased that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry will be home to these important Chicago items," said Mr. Norris Wacker, curator of the Museum’s electronics collection.. "Many of the items in the H****** collection perfectly complement the Chicago focus of the museum, and the strengths of his collection—particularly in early color—will greatly expand on the existing strengths of the museum's other Chicago-related collections."
Mr. H****** said that he is "very pleased that these sets I've come to love so much will have a compatible home at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry," and added that he looks forward to the $34 million dollar wing the museum is adding to house the collection.
Mr. H******’s collection and restoration efforts have been featured for years on AudioKarma, an audiophile/videophile website beginning in 2003; and Mr. H******’s own website dating from the same era.


Just a joke, but what a fine collection you have!

Cheers,

[drh4683]

Found a rather unusual set today. Something Ive never ran across. Its a 1977 RCA CTC-89 with remote control. It was found at a sale at 916 Lafayette Ave in Aurora.
I considered not going to this sale as it was in a bad section of Aurora. Aurora has a pretty bad reputation for crime. Like most of Chicago suburbs, they continue to decline and nothing is being done to save whats left of them. Makes one wonder what the future holds. Thats another story though that I could go on and on about.
Considering I just recently survived a CRT implosion, I figured my luck was still strong so I went ahead to the sale.
I found this set sitting in a bedroom without a bed, with its original RCA hi-cart. Ive seen many of these odd hicarts around, but never saw what kind of TV would have been on them. So today I got the best of both worlds, the TV, and finding out the kind of set that went with the commonly found empty cart.
I never had a set like this before, and never saw one before either. Seem like late 70's RCAs rarely show up, especially with remote. Its a typical primative remote as you can see. Its even an ultrasonic, which must be one of the very last from RCA. The set was made in September of '77. So it just turned 31. It doesnt seem like this set should be over 30 years old! When you first look at it, you'd think its from the early-mid 80's.
I noticed it was a Color Trac too. I kind of considered not taking the set at first. Then I decided to power it up and see what it was all about. The remote had good batteries in it yet. Plugged it in and it turned on. Pressed the channel changer button and the dial drum rotates! That sold me on it, motorized varactor tuning. You never see those! What also sold me is that it had the original cart and the set is in mint condition. The picture blew me away too. THe picture is as good if not better than a zenith chromacolor II. It has 8 preset UHF channels. Opened up the control door, which is designed to be completely removable. Also to note, the long vertical control door is actually pot metal! None of the presets were tuned, the indicator bars were all the way to the end like it would have been after leaving the factory. The channel windows on the dial drum all had letters A-H for UHF too. No channel digits were ever installed.
I didnt know what to expect as far as the chassis was concerned. I bought it for half off, which was only 5 bucks. My kind of deal.
When I got home, I pulled the back off to dedust it. I was expecting some "modern" looking chassis layout, like a mediocre sized circuit board and nothing else. Well, I was pleasantly surprized with what i saw. A nice big chassis, like an XL-100 which plug in modules, but the chassis was a horizontal layout. The power supply and HV sections were still point to point wired. Even has a seperate remote control chassis, similar to that used in the 60's sets. So its not a cheaply made set. It must be one of last "good" ones though. Good meaning, circuit boards/modules mounted on a steel framed chassis, and individual pots mounted to the rear of the chassis. I really like this one, and would make a great everyday TV.

[zenith2134]

Excellent find. Found a CTC-89 curbside a couple of years back but the green was totally weak. It was a single-knob tuner with electronic presets also from '77. This is a delta gun set, correct?